Determining a geographic location of an Internet host can be valuable for a number of Internet applications. For example, knowing the geographic location or approximate geographic location of the host can simplify network management in large-scale systems, assist with network diagnoses, and enable location-based advertising services. An Internet host can include one or more computers, such as servers, that provide a service, such as hosting a website, an email service, and the like. Some known systems and methods can provide coarse-grained geolocation of an Internet host, such as at the state- or city-level. However, such coarse-grained geolocation may be insufficient in a number of contexts, such as identifying Internet hosts in need of repair, identifying businesses in a relatively densely populated area, and the like.
Some known systems and methods are client-assisted in that the Internet hosts themselves (or the entities managing the hosts) voluntarily provide the geographic locations of the hosts. However, many applications that make use of geolocation services, such as location-based access restrictions, context-aware security, and online advertising, may be unable to rely on the voluntary support for geolocation from the clients. For example, not all clients may be willing to disclose the locations of their Internet hosts.
Other known systems and methods make use of online databases, such as the Whois database, that provide information on the IP addresses of Internet hosts and registered locations of the hosts. However, some relatively large commercial entities having hosts that are widely dispersed in different locations can register the domain names of the hosts with the same geographical location, such as the postal address of the headquarters of the entity. As a result, mining the Whois database may only yield the location of the headquarters for a host, as opposed to the actual geographic location of the hosts.
A need exists for a system and method that can determine a location or approximate location of an Internet host that is at least as accurate or more accurate than known systems and methods and/or is able to identify the location or approximate location without having access to or control over the Internet host.